On the surface, Vin Diesel appears to be the ultimate
Hollywood tough guy. Those bulging muscles. That shaved dome. The
bottom-of-the-ocean deep voice. His apparent disdain for smiling and
sleeves. If he weren’t an action- movie star, he’d be a bouncer — which
he was, at New York nightclubs like Tunnel in the ’80s.

In movies
such as the “Fast & Furious” series and “xXx,” he jumps off moving
cars, drives through flames and throws a lethal punch. For “Riddick,”
the third film in its franchise, out this Friday, Diesel handily rips
more than a few sci-fi creatures a new one.

So one imagines that, in his spare time, Diesel relaxes by crushing
the throats of rogue coyotes or working out until he pukes. Not updating
his Facebook profile. And certainly not posting platitudes of the
variety one might find adorning a poster in a dentist’s office.

Meet the nation’s oddest action hero.

QUOTE: “You angels can turn hate to love, change poison into medicine and replace doubt with dreams.” -Vin Diesel NUMBER OF LIKES: 100,718

Here’s a typical Facebook post from Diesel: a photo of the
actor in a car, his hand gripping the wheel as he stares out into the
distance. Overlaid atop the image are these words: “Time goes by so
fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the
opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you.” Diesel
attributes the words to Alexander Graham Bell. Google seems to disagree.
The star’s fans couldn’t care less — more than 130,000 of them have liked it.

Diesel’s
most viral post to date is a Valentine’s Day video of him crooning
Rihanna’s ballad “Stay” (sample lyric: “Funny you’re the broken one/ but
I’m the only one who needed saving”) in a dark room with the music
video projected on a wall. Not only does he attempt a few falsetto
notes, he throws in some kissy sounds at the end.

The result of
all this un-John- Wayne-like behavior? Diesel, with 46 million Facebook
fans, is the second most-liked actor on the social network site (only
Will Smith has more, with 49 million).
Diesel told Entertainment
Weekly earlier this year that Facebook once asked him to visit its
offices after seeing his initial success with the social media platform.
He even joked that Facebook owes him “billions of dollars.”

“What
Facebook didn’t realize is something very big was about to happen, and
that was — for the first time in history [ . . . ] I started talking to
people,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “In the realest ways.”

“When
I started talking to the fans, I became the No. 1 page in the world.
Over Coca-Cola, over huge companies. And it was only because I said:
‘Hi, guys, I love you.’ ”

Social media experts attribute his Facebook success not necessarily to
who Diesel is, but what he’s posting. At their best — or worst,
depending on your point of view — the actor’s posts are highconcept and
chock full of cheese.

NUMBER OF LIKES: 168,912

“As a community manager, it’s awful,” says Christianna
Giordano, a digital strategist at Cohn & Wolfe and a featured
blogger for Social Media Today, citing Diesel’s infrequent posts and
lack of direct responses to his fans. “But it’s very obviously him.
That’s why the 46 million fans comment.”

Breaking the mold of celebrities who hire others to handle their
social media, Diesel has said he posts everything himself. Which might
explain a few things.
A typical Diesel post offers a few words of
inspiration — sometimes quoting others, sometimes from his own mouth.
“Confidence . . . never deny yourself of it, for it costs you nothing
and leads to great things . . . /smile.” Or “Being male is a matter of
birth, being a man is a matter of age, but . . . being a Gentleman is a
matter of choice.”

“I totally acknowledge as a fan that it’s
super cheesy,” says Giordano. “I think that people respond to it because
he can be personal. It’s very inspirational, [what] with him having
come from meager beginnings.”

Diesel, 46, was born Mark Sinclair in Manhattan to an astrologist
mother, Delora. The actor has said he does not know his father, but was
co-parented by his stepfather, Irving H. Vincent, in Greenwich Village.

As a child, Diesel, along with his brother Paul and a group of
pals, roamed the Village streets, looking for trouble. Crystal Field,
executive artistic director of the Theater for the New City for four
decades, remembers the day a 7-year-old Diesel and his gang sneaked into
the theater, not realizing anyone was there.

“He told me that
they came to vandalize the place — he used the word ‘vandalize,’ ”
recalls Field. “They proceeded to tell me . . . they weren’t going to
attack me, but they were going to tear things up and write on the
walls.”

Field, who frequently worked with at-risk youth, had
other plans for the rebel without a cause. “I said, ‘Listen, don’t you
think it would be much more valuable for you to be in a play?’ ” she
says.
Upon consideration, Diesel agreed. His role was in
something called “The Dinosaur Door.” (Nearly 40 years later, he would
post on Facebook: “Never forget your child inside cause that’s where
dreams are made.”)

Bitten by the acting bug, Diesel adopted his stage name while working
as a bouncer — Vin short for the last name acquired from his stepdad,
and Diesel for his boundless energy. After a 1998 role in “Saving
Private Ryan,” his first studio film, he hit it big with a string of
movies in the early aughts. “Pitch Black” made him an action hero,
“Boiler Room” proved he could act, and “The Fast and the Furious” and
“xXx” made him a bona fide star.

Getty Images

Vin Diesel steps out on the town with his girlfriend, Mexican model Paloma Jimenez.

His star power waned, however, in the mid-aughts with critical
duds such as “The Chronicles of Riddick” and “The Pacifier.” But
interestingly, since he joined Facebook in 2009, Diesel’s boxoffice cred
has risen. That same year, the fourth “Fast” film grabbed $363 million
and the fifth (released in 2011) netted $628 million. This year, the
sixth and most recent installment has earned a whopping $787 million so
far. And just last week, Diesel received a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame, as his model girlfriend, Paloma Jimenez, and their children
(daughter Hania, 5, and son Vincent, 3) stood by his side.

You’ve gotta wonder if the career rebirth is helped by Diesel’s
enormous Facebook presence. After all, he calls his fans “angels.”
“Truly
phenomenal & superb actor. A credit to his gender. He deserves to
be recognized,” one fan recently wrote on his page.
After the
(unintentionally or not) hilarious “Stay” video was picked up all over
the Web, Diesel responded — where else? — on his Facebook page.
“Naturally,
I became self-conscious . . . and thought maybe I shouldn’t have
exposed myself like that . . . ,” he wrote. “Then I had dinner with my
dad, and surprisingly . . . he said he loved it . . . and thought it was
deep on a few levels . . . P.s. Don’t be afraid to step out of your
comfort zone, you don’t have to be perfect . . . just believe in
yourself.”
Life coach Sherri Ziff, author of the November book
“Hollywood Epidemic: Fame, Celebrity & Other Allusions,” says Diesel
represents the new masculine ideal. “He’s a badass with a moral
compass.”

QUOTE: “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.” -Nelson Mandela. NUMBER OF LIKES: 168,912

Those who know Diesel in real life say the image of a soft guy stuck in a thug’s body is not just an act.
Antoinette Kalaj, who plays one of Diesel’s consorts in “Riddick,” says the actor was generous with career advice on the set.
“He
is someone that really worked hard for his career from the beginning,”
she says. “He just always says, ‘Stay true to yourself and be you. Do
what you love. Don’t ever change for this business.’ ”
Neil
Napier, who also appears in “Riddick,” got a taste of the star’s true
self at a cast dinner before shooting began. Diesel opened up about his
love of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, he wrote
the foreword for the book “30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of
Dungeons & Dragons.”
“We started talking about the mythology
of ‘Riddick’ and why he was so passionate about this series of films
that he fought to make this last one, and it moved on to why he loved
playing ‘Dungeons & Dragons,’ ” says Napier. “I was schooled a
little bit.”
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Diesel loves a good
fantasy. What else would you expect from a man who has no shame posting
on Facebook a photo of himself standing on a balcony and peering out
into the great beyond — with these words of wisdom: “Be you . . .
believe in you . . . and allow for tomorrow’s dreams.”